60 Marine Varnish

It’s a standing joke amongst birders that this striking bird is called the Black-collared Barbet because it has a bright red head. The names Red-headed, Red-faced, Red-crowned, Red-throated and even Red-fronted already apply to other barbet species elsewhere in the world though, forcing emphasis on another, more unique if less distinctive, aspect of its plumage. Rare individuals with the red colour in the plumage replaced by yellow (xanthochroism) pop up occasionally throughout the range.

This barbet lives in pairs or small family parties. The far-carrying call is a rhythmic duet between the male and female, so perfectly synchronised that it sounds like a single bird. This far-carrying and frequently repeated duet, likened to the phrase ‘two-puddley, two-puddley’, is repeated up to about 20 times. It is one of the most characteristic sounds of the well-wooded habitats in which this species resides, including many suburban gardens throughout eastern South Africa.

This barbet is a favoured, indeed probably the favourite, host of the brood-parasitic Lesser Honeyguide in South Africa. Protracted and noisy duels, involving much frenzied chasing, break out at and around the breeding holes of the barbets as they staunchly defend their nests against intrusion by the equally determined honeyguides. Much is at stake. When the honeyguide succeeds in laying its single egg in the nest, the resultant chick is armed with wickedly spiked mandibles used to literally rip the barbet chicks to shreds, leaving it as the sole beneficiary of the food provisioned by its foster parents.

Bird illustrations are from Sasol Birds of Southern Africa published by Struik Nature. Illustrations © by Norman Arlott are used with kind permission of the Arlott family.
www.struiknature.co.za